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Croatians to elect new president next week

ZAGREB: Croatians will choose between two pro-European politicians for their new president on Monday, renouncing the autocratic nationalism of late President Franjo Tudjman that isolated the country from Europe. The contestants are charismatic centrist Stipe Mesic of the tiny People's Party and Social Liberal (HSLS) leader Drazen Budisa, both affiliated with the new centre-left governing coalition under Social Democratic Prime Minister Ivica Racan.

The broad six-party bloc, led by the HSLS and the Social Democrats, ousted Tudjman's conservative Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) from power in parliamentary elections on January 3.

The stocky, crop-haired Mesic topped the first round of presidential balloting on January 24 but failed to gain the absolute majority needed for immediate victory. The second round is set for February 7.

"The parliamentary election was the key event. Croatian voters definitely showed they wanted to look forward to a future in Europe and the presidential poll is indeed confirming that," said a Zagreb-based Western analyst.

Western diplomats have indicated they would be happy with Mesic or Budisa as both are likely to be much more democratic than Tudjman, whose authoritarian rule over the past decade alienated the West from Croatia.

The new president will be elected for a five-year term but the House of Representatives is likely to curb his power and shift it to parliament as early as this year.

Both contestants have agreed to that, while wishing to retain some functions including that of supreme army commander.

"Their race now resembles a contest for a conductor who will soon be permanently deprived of his orchestra," said an editorial in influential political weekly Nacional.

Recent newspaper and television polls put Mesic in the lead and the bearded 65-year-old jurist looks set to replace Tudjman, who died in December, although a television poll on Wednesday showed Budisa marginally ahead for the first time.

Local observers, however, are concerned that a Mesic victory might add to the problems the newly formed six-party cabinet will soon have to address.

Mesic has said he will try to defuse tensions in crisis situations, closely monitor government work and even seek to dissolve it if it fails to meet electoral promises.

Like Mesic, Budisa was imprisoned by Yugoslav communist authorities for supporting a Croatian national movement as a student in 1971. Eighteen years later he was among the founders of the HSLS, with which he has stayed throughout.

Lacking Mesic's instant charm and common touch, Budisa has emphasised his seriousness, honesty and commitment to working closely with his ally, Racan. But the second-round campaigning saw a reversal of their roles.

"Mesic tried to look like seriousness personified while Budisa sought to break out of a conventional framework," Nacional said in reference to Budisa's burst of campaigning among pensioners, students, beer drinkers and rockers.-Reuters